Monday, March 25, 2013

People often tell me they either can't find the time to exercise, aren't capable of doing it or don't know where to start.

My advice: walk.

That's right. Walking is the perfect exercise. Why, you ask? Because almost anyone can do it. It's free. You can do it almost anywhere. And best of all: you can work at your own pace.

There's also a hidden dimension to walking that most people don't realize. It is liberating. Especially when you're really heavy like I was for so long and it's all you can do. You are making a statement and taking a stand. You are moving your body. You're not taking it anymore. You are fighting back.

It is no secret that countries and societies where walking is a major mode of transportation have fewer overweight people and lower rates of heart disease, etc.

And yet, people put walking down. The results don't come fast enough. It's not hardcore enough. But these people are wrong.

The secret to a walking regimen is persistence. Once your doctor clears you for walking, you start where you are. If you can only walk 5 minutes before your feet start hurting or your back gives out, then start there. 5 minutes a day, 3 times a week.

Then, gradually, after a few weeks, increase it to 10 minutes. And so on. That is what I did. I started at 5 minutes a day and I now walk 3 miles a day. When it comes to staying in shape and keeping the weight off, more than anything, walking is the secret to my success. There is also an emotional, spiritual well-being side to walking. It's like you are in a march to free yourself from an unhealthy lifestyle. Again, you are taking a stand.

Don't think you have to have an expensive gym membership to "work out" and "do cardio" just to get started losing weight and staying in shape.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

What exactly is a "lifestyle change?"

You've
probably heard the following saying many times in your life: "It's not a
diet, it's a lifestyle change."

What
comes to mind is the idea that not only are you changing what you eat and how
much, but you're also exercising.

But
as I've discovered over the last 2 ½ years it's much, much more than that.You don't get to be 577 pounds without
having several serious problems going on around you. But when it comes to
changing that lifestyle, here are just a few things I changed that aren't
necessarily just diet and exercise.

1.)
Your friends. That's right, your friends.In much the same way that a recovering alcoholic gets rid of their
drinking buddies, a food addict has to ditch their "eating
buddies."If all you do with
somebody is go out to eat, then that relationship is destructive.If the people you hang out with have
become a bad influence, time for them to go.

2.)
Grocery Shopping. If the junk food isn't in your house, you can't eat it. If
you swing open your refrigerator and look inside it, what is available? Is it
full of crap? If it is, time to throw it all away and fill it with healthy
food.Or the absolute worst, is
there nothing in it at all?Time
to start grocery shopping...stat.As far as eating out in restaurants goes, this is out of control.It used to be dining out was reserved
for special occasions. Now it's turned into 3 and 5 times a week.I believe in order to change your
lifestyle, a large percentage of your food has to come from the grocery store.

3.)
Your schedule.Part of my cycle of
self-destruction included working a night schedule.I would get off work, then stay up all night watching TV and
binging on junk food. By the time I fell asleep at 4 or 5 in the morning, I was
stuffed with thousands of calories.For me, it took switching to an early morning shift to help jump-start
my healthy lifestyle change.It is
true what Benjamin Franklin said: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a
man healthy, wealthy and wise."Except for the wealthy part, all of that has come true for me.

4.)
Television. I almost never watch TV anymore. In fact, I've thought of giving it
away. What's on TV, anyway?Non-stop food commercials. I used to watch the Food Network all the
time.But I have discovered that I
can't anymore.Everything they
show is one gigantic eating trigger. I used to think I had to watch certain TV
shows...that there is no way I could live without the TV.Turns out I don't need it at all.

Your
lifestyle is your life.If you
want to change your lifestyle, you're going to have to change your life.After 2 years of doing this, I can tell
you this: it is very hard.But as
the saying goes, it is difficult, but not impossible.

Think
of it this way: if you want to lose weight, all of your habits, behaviors, food
that you eat, body movements, all of it contribute to your current state of
health.

To
make that change, to improve your health, requires the modification of habits,
behaviors, food that you eat and body movements.

What
makes this a very tall order is none of it will last unless you do it forever.
The problem with all of that is that for many of us (myself included, before
June 20, 2010) food has become a reward.Food has become entertainment.Food has become happiness.

That
all has to go out the window.Food
is fuel.Nothing more.The thin person does not have a problem
with this.They are perfectly
capable of (for now) celebrating with food, eating foods high in sugar, fat,
salt and calories in small portions and getting by.

But
not us.Not me. Not other heavy
people.We've gone too far.We can't do it.We can't stop.

Which
is why we can never start.

Back
to changing the lifestyle.There
are so many traditions and things that we do where unhealthy food is ingrained
into our routines.To be
successful, long-term, I believe it all has to go.

Used
to eating concession food at the movies?Bring your own healthy alternatives.

Used
to eating hotdogs and nachos at the baseball game?Bring your own better food.

Eat
out of the vending machines at work?Don't.Pack your own lunch
and snacks.

That's
what has to happen.Those key
behaviors have to be changed. And that's why it's hard.

But
you can do it!If I can, anyone
can.And that's the truth.

I
get asked all the time: "How can I lose weight like you did?How do I find the motivation to lose X
number of pounds?Will you tell me
what to eat?"

As
well-intentioned as those questions are, they all miss the point
completely.Simply losing weight
should never be the focus.As a
matter of fact, it's a counterproductive way to think.Being overweight is a symptom of an
unhealthy lifestyle, it is not the cause of it.

Before
you start thinking about losing weight and trying to add years to your life and
life to your years, you have to be in the proper frame of mind. You need to
think about how you can make your lifestyle change permanent.If all you're going to do is
temporarily change what you do in order to lose 50 pounds for a wedding and
then put it all back on, you may as well not bother.

No,
dear reader, what you want is a total lifestyle change.Nothing less will do.That is the best chance you have at
getting healthier, losing weight and keeping it off and staying out of the
doctor's office.So what are the
steps that go into this?First,
you have to analyze your own behavior.You know yourself better than anyone else, right?

Identify
what your demons are and stay away from them....forever.For me, one of my biggest demons is
restaurants.When I am being
served food in a restaurant, I cannot control myself.It is very much like an alcoholic in a bar.So I stay far, far away.For you, it might be something simple
like mindless eating.Whatever it
is, identify it and don't do it!

You
can do it.You know you can and so
do I.Take your life back.Take it back starting right now.

When
it comes to a lifestyle change, how you approach it, the expectations you set
are almost more important than the journey itself. I'll give you some examples.

"I
need to lose weight"needs to
become "I need to adopt a healthy lifestyle, one of the benefits of which
is having a lower body weight."See how that works?

"I
need to lose 20 pounds by July" needs to become "I'd like to be in
shape in time for July. By adopting a healthy lifestyle, that will help
me."

Again,
if just losing weight is the focus, then give upnow.The
failure rate on weight loss-based dieting is about 95%. That's 95 out of 100
people gaining it all back. A terrible track record.

Don't
put yourself through that.

Instead,
try this.Don't put a time limit
on your lifestyle change.Don't
weigh yourself all the time.Stop
wanting it all now, now, now.

When
I started my journey, I had a doctor tell me it would take 3 years to lose all
this weight.And he might be
right.He then suggested weight
loss surgery.But I knew, for me,
that weight loss surgery wasn't going to fix my problem.

It
wasn't going to fix my food addiction problem, only I could do that.

It
wasn't going to teach me how to eat right, only I could do that.

It
wasn't going to teach me to exercise, only I could do that.

Instead
of "I need to lose weight," focus on "I need to maintain a
healthier weight."

Because
I can tell you from experience, there is *zero* point in losing a bunch of
weight if you can't keep it off.Absolutely a waste of time.

How to Handle
Negativity

There are going to be
people that are not going to want you to change your life. Negativity is everywhere.

We're
all guilty of it.You've heard the
phrase "misery loves company?"It's very true.

But
when it comes to saving your own life and changing your lifestyle, negativity
has no place.It must be banished
forever and not be tolerated in any way, shape or form.Your mindset on a daily basis is
critical to your success.

So
what kind of negativity am I talking about?

Sabotage. Face it, some people like us the way we are.People don't like change.Perhaps your partner thinks you'll
leave them if you lose weight.Maybe somebody close to you enjoys putting you down because they can't
do it themselves.Either way,
watch out for sabotage.People
always offering you food, for instance, trying to tempt you and enable you into
failure.I've run into it before
and I simply confront it head-on: "I appreciate the offer, but I am never
eating that. Thank you though."

Put-downs. Don't stand for it.This takes many forms, but the basic thrust is the person
putting you down doesn't think you can do what you're doing.Or perhaps they can't do it themselves,
so they put you down to make themselves feel better.The code words and phrases for the putter-downer are things
like "you need to be realistic" and "you can't do this on your
own." Again, just like with the sabotage,shut them down: "I am changing my life and I would
appreciate you being more supportive."

Fatism. It is an absolute irrefutable fact that the last
acceptable form of discrimination in our society is the mistreatment of the
overweight.I will debate this
issue with anyone who cares to try.It isn't right, but a large portion of society sees big people as less
than a human being, if they see them at all.I've experienced this first hand.When I weighed 577 pounds, many people wouldn't even say
hello to me.Now they're my best
friend.But what they don't
realize is I have a mental list and they're on it.So don't tolerate it from your friends and family. You are
due the same respect any other person is and don't tolerate the jokes, the
put-downs or the comments. You are on a mission to change your life and you
will leave the doubters behind.

And
one more note about people.Early
on, I realized that just like an alcoholic has to ditch their drinking buddies
to get clean, I had to do the same thing with my eating buddies.I don't mean to sound drastic, but it
had to be done.

When
you change your lifestyle, you are changing your life.You are becoming a different, healthier
person.That goes for the mind and
the body.Your transformation will
be the result of your own positive energy and anyone that is not on board with
that 100% has to go.

This
is not a diet book. I am not offering you some special plan you can follow to
lose 30 pounds in 30 days.I am
not going to insult your intelligence by telling you how easy it all is.It isn’t.Losing weight is actually quite easy.Keeping it off is the very, very hard
part.

You
may have heard the statistics, which vary depending on the source.Between 9 and 10 people that lose
weight gain it all back.I’ve read
90%.I’ve read 95%.It doesn’t matter.What really matters is that we have a
plan to lose weight that includes another plan to keep it off. If you approach
your lifestyle change correctly, you will be the 5% and not the 95%.Say it out loud: I am the 5%.

Early
on in this journey, I realized that there was no point to losing weight if I
couldn’t keep it off.I have been
through the depressing emotional trauma of losing a large amount of weight and
gaining it all back. It’s a terrible feeling. It’s also humiliating.There was no way I was going through
that again.

Think
about that for a minute.That
point of view will absolutely change how you approach your lifestyle
change.From the outset, think not
about losing weight.Think about
keeping it off and maintaining a lower weight.If you apply that as a standard, you see why everything and
everybody else fails.

Diet
food.This is what everybody eats to lose weight and what happens
when they stop eating it?They
gain all the weight back.Unless
you are going to eat boxed dinners you buy off the TV the rest of your life,
don’t bother.

Pills.At best,
diet pills do nothing for you and at worst, they cause very serious health
problems.No matter what some
doctor on TV says, there is no such thing as a “fat-burning” pill.None of it works, none of it will ever
work and your money is going to be wasted.Don’t do it.

Low-carb
diets. Are you really, honestly going to
live on mostly meat the rest of your life?Doubtful, since if you did, you wouldn’t live very
long.Again, there is no point to
attempting any diet plan that you cannot commit to the rest of your life.

So
that is the first step.What can
you realistically do?Everybody is
different.This is where you have
to look inside yourself and assess the situation.

Here
are a few good first steps to follow.

1.)
Get all of your health problems out in the open, on the table.Men especially, I am talking to
you.Pretending you don’t have
high blood pressure doesn’t make it go away.Go to the doctor.Get a full check-up.If you
are prescribed medication, take it as directed.If you have problems sleeping, go see a doctor and get a
sleep study done.If you’re
diagnosed with sleep apnea, follow your doctor’s orders and use your CPAP
nightly.It will save your life.

2.)
Make an appointment with a registered dietitian. Learn about portion control,
proper nutrition and eating a balanced diet.Go to the appointment.Take notes and ask lots of questions.

3.)
Talk to your doctor about what you’re wanting to do.If at any point along the way, any doctor or health
professional belittles your desire to better yourself and tells you it can’t be
done, find another doctor with a better attitude.Yes, 95% may gain all the weight back, but remember...you
are the 5%.

4.)
Set your expectations correctly. This is going to take years.That’s right; I said it.If your goal is to lose 20 pounds by
your family reunion, don’t buy this book.I don’t want your money.There are plenty of other gimmicks and diets on the bookshelf for you to
try.The Ganey way is simple:
long-term weight loss is not only the goal, it is the only goal. You would be
better off losing 50 pounds in the first year and keeping it off than you would
be losing 100 pounds the first year and gaining back 200.Studies have shown the longer it takes
to lose weight, the more likely the person is to keep that weight off.

5.)
Weigh once and then put the scale away.Yes, you need a starting weight. If you’re extremely overweight like I
was, there may not be a scale that can accurately weigh you.I had to weigh at one point on a truck
scale.But I wanted that starting
weight.But after you get that
beginning weight, put the scale away for 1 month.That’s right, I am telling you not to weigh on a scale for a
month.When most people begin a
diet, they race from one weigh-in to the next, worshiping at the almighty
scale.They become obsessed with
pleasing the scale.It all becomes
about moving that number at all costs.No consideration is given to your health, new habits being formed or
your lifestyle being permanently changed.That is the diet mindset.The problem is eventually the diet will end, you’ll lose interest and be
unable to keep up that extreme approach.So don’t do it.

Again: weigh once and
put the scale away. Your goal here is to improve your health and live a better
life, not win a weight loss contest.

6.) The food that you
will eat will come from the grocery store.If you haven’t been in awhile, you might have to ask
somebody where it is.Take a
friend, learn how it works. Once you park your car, there will be a grocery
cart you can use to collect your items.In some parts of the country, this is called a “buggy” or a “shopping
cart” or if you live in the UK, a “trolley.”Some of you haven’t been to the grocery store since you were
14 years old.You’re going to be
spending a lot of time there, so familiarize yourself with it.Warning: the grocery store can be a
dangerous place as well.It is
loaded with as much junk food as a fast food restaurant.However, I will teach you to know the
difference and only buy the good stuff.

7.)Say goodbye to restaurants, vending
machines, drive-thrus, pizza delivery, coffee shops, donuts at the office...all
of it.This is the new you.Do whatever you have to do: have a
funeral, write a letter to yourself, whatever.But it’s over.These are not healthy sources of food for you and won’t be in the
future.

8.) But wait...no more
restaurants...ever?Before I lose
you completely, hear me out.A
long time ago, perhaps when you were a child, restaurants were considered a
treat.Dining out was reserved for
special occasions only.Then
sometime in the last 20-30 years or so, it became the alternative to cooking at
home.Now it has turned into the
only way to eat for a lot of people.This is a disaster.You
cannot surrender your lifestyle change to a restaurant, whose only goal it is
to sell you as much food as possible, as cheaply as possible.

So will you be able to
go to a restaurant again someday?Yes, you will.But not for
now.More on that later in the book.

9.) Yes, you are going
to need to exercise.However,
unless you are a qualified personal trainer, all you know about exercise is
what you’ve seen on TV and that is the incorrect way to exercise.Do not be one of these people that
joins the gym, goes for 2 weeks straight, works out like a maniac, hurts
themselves and then is never seen or heard from again.That is, until you run into them at the
buffet.Ever wonder how gyms make
their money?The majority of the
people who belong simply donate their dues monthly and do not use the facility.
Joining a gym is probably not something you will do for awhile.More on that in the exercise chapter.

10.) Prepare to eat and
eat all the time.Food is not a
reward, food is not a celebration, food is not for pleasure, food is not
happiness, food is not comfort.Food is fuel.Nothing more,
nothing less.You eat because you
have to.And to be healthy, you
need to eat healthy food regularly.Whether or not you are hungry has nothing to do with it.You need a lot of food when you wake up
in the morning, then a few hours later, then lunch, the more food a few hours
later, then dinner, then an evening snack.You are going to eat 3 meals per day and 3 snacks.Starvation is not an option.You are what you eat.The 95% that gain the weight back, ride
the rolller coaster of frozen diet dinners, meal replacement shakes, protein
bars, diet pills and other assorted nonsense.Again, you are the 5%.You are only going to make changes you can live with for the rest of
your life.

10 Weight Loss Myths

1.) “I don’t eat that
much.”

This used to be one of
my favorites. Truth is, you may not eat a large quantity of food, but if what
you’re eating is very high in calories, you will be overweight. We are what we
eat.I used to regularly eat
10,000 calories a day.It’s no
wonder I weighed 577 pounds.Denial is a powerful force that will only hold you back.Just admit to yourself: if you are
overweight, you really are eating that much.

2.)
Eating in the car, eating in front of the television, or eating in front of the
computer is wrong and you're a bad person for doing it.

I
always enjoy reading this one. I am pleased to report it is complete
nonsense.In the last 2 ½ years, I
have lost 350 pounds committing the following sins according to the
"experts:"I eat
breakfast every day in front of the computer.I snack all day at work in front of a computer.I eat dinner and watch TV at the same
time,Sometimes I eat dinner,
watch TV and surf the internet all the time.That's talent, right?

I
eat in the car.I eat and drive at
the same time.Sometimes I eat in
the grocery store parking lot, right from the package.This whole idea that we should only eat
at the dining room table is a complete fantasy in this day and age.I don't even have a dining room table
(that I know of.)

It's
not where you're eating your food, it's what you're eating and how many
calories you're consuming.Trying
to follow unrealistic rules about where you should eat takes your eye off the
ball.It's a popular rule,
however, because humans are addicted to making things more complicated than
they need to be.

The
bottom line: Mindless eating can occur anywhere.As long as you know how much you're eating and you keep
track of it, you can eat anywhere.

3.)
Eating at night is bad and will make you fat.

If
eating at night made you fat, I would still weigh 577 pounds.The truth is, I eat around the
clock.As long as the total amount
I am consuming is right for me, it doesn't matter when I eat it.

Sometimes
I eat dinner at 5pm.Sometimes I
eat it at 9pm.I've had dinner at
11pm.

Once,
I woke up at 2 in the morning once so ravenously hungry, I could've eaten the
wallpaper off the walls.I made
myself a bowl of oatmeal with a piece of fruit and ate it. And you know
what?I still lost weight that
week.I just added it to my food
diary for that day, ate the food and went back to bed.And lived to tell about it.Imagine that!

But...doesn't
everything you eat turn to fat if you go right to bed after you eat it?No, it doesn't.Think about the nonsense of this
oft-repeated statement.If I eat
an apple, which has practically zero fat, how is that going to turn to fat in
my stomach just because I am asleep?Please.

The
bottom line: As long as the total calories of what you're eating doesn't exceed
your requirements for that day, eating at night will not make you fat.

4.)
To lose weight, I have to starve myself.I can eat no more than 1,500 calories.

I
don't know about you, but I could never get by on 1,500 calories. The truth is,
everybody's calorie requirements are different. It all depends on how much
physical activity you engage in during the day.Somebody that sits at a desk all day won't be able to eat as
much as say, a delivery driver who runs up and down stairs all day.

Starvation
is one of the biggest reasons I believe people fail at weight loss.They completely overdo it trying to
pursue a quick fix, get discouraged and quit.This is very sad. Only eating 1,500 calories a day is as
extreme as trying to work out in the gym 20 times a week is.It's not sustainable.

There
are different calorie calculators available online and there are differing
methods for determining the appropriate number of calories you should consume.Factors such as your desired goal
weight, age, height, activity level, etc. all play a part.

For
myself, in the beginning, I was eating 1,500-1,600 calories a day.When I boosted that to 2,400 calories,
I started losing weight faster.I
believe it was because my body was in starvation mode, conserving resources
instead of using them.It worked
for me.Everybody is different.

The
bottom line: you need food to live.You can starve yourself or stop eating to lose weight temporarily, but
only for so long.

5.) If I work out
twice a day, 14 times a week, I can eat whatever I want.

Exercise is very
important and is absolutely essential to your lifestyle change.However, working out has a very lousy
return when it comes to weight loss.For example, for every 100 calories burned, you have to run a mile.One bad trip through the drive-thru is
1,000 calories.The bottom line:
you cannot outrun your stupidity in the gym.Exercise is central to a healthy body and a healthy
mindset.Unless you’re Michael
Phelps, weight is lost at mealtime, not in the gym.

6.) I know someone
who eats like a horse and magically still stays skinny.

Sorry, no you
don’t.And here’s why.Yes, you may see this mythical thin
person eat a large amount of food.But do you really know how much they eat all day?Are you tracking their calories and
their exercise?What do they do
for a living?Perhaps they just
eat one large meal per day and that is what you witnessed.

The bottom line: the
math is the math.No one escapes
it.There is no magic, mythical
skinny person that defies the laws of nature.They don’t exist.This is what we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel like victims and
feel better about overeating.

7.) Everything In
Moderation

It has been said that
you can eat anything you want as long as you just eat it in moderation.There are a few problems with
this.If you are significantly
overweight, it is safe to say that you cannot do anything in moderation and
this strategy has failed you.A
famous commercial for a famous snack food product says you can’t eat just
one.There is a reason for this.
The “food” is engineered to make you want it.As a food addict, I can tell you that for many things, 1 is
too many and 50 is not enough.

The bottom line: “everything in moderation” doesn’t work because everything
is not moderation.

8.) There Are No Bad
Foods

You can have anything
you want, right?I will answer
that question with a question: how has that strategy worked out for you so
far?Consider this: a banana is
approximately 25 calories per ounce.A popular candy bar that claims to cure hunger is 135 calories per
ounce.What is going to fill you
up more?A half a candy bar or a
large banana?

The bottom line: some
foods simply offer no nutritional value and should be avoided.You cannot reprogram your taste buds to
like healthy food by continuing to have “just a little” of the processed
garbage that made you overweight in the first place.

9.) I know what
works, I’ll just do it again.

The definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different
result.If you have lost weight
before and have not kept it off, that approach is a failure.It should not be repeated because the
failure will be repeated.Unlike
the stock market, past performance is indeed an indicator of future
results.You must study your
failures and not repeat them.

The bottom line: the
goal is not to lose weight.The
goal is to keep it off. There is a difference and we will talk about that more
later.

10.) Eating Healthy
Is Expensive.

This myth got started by
people buying diet foods at the grocery store. The “light” and “fat-free”
versions of processed foods do indeed cost more than the full fat versions. But
that garbage isn’t going to be what you’re eating.

In addition, people who
eat in restaurants 5 and 10 times a week will then get on a health kick, go to
the grocery store, spend $200 and then proclaim that “eating healthy is
expensive.”

I am here to tell you it isn’t and that is a myth.If you stop eating at restaurants, stop buying mostly
processed food and buy fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low-fat
dairy, you will discover eating healthy is quite inexpensive.

The bottom line: Not
all food comes in a box with a picture on the front of it and a bar code on the
back of it. Eating healthy is not expensive.

So there you have
it.This chapter has been an
overview of what I am about, my approach and how I lost 350 pounds in 2 ½ years
on my own with no special diets, pills or surgery.

I was 37 years old.I had been overweight my entire life
and had long given up doing anything about it.Like everyone, I tried the diets and they all failed me.
None of it worked because none of it was ever going to work.Sure, I lost weight, but I always
gained it all back plus more.

So I gave up.I just figured I would be heavy the
rest of my life, however long that lasted. I got bigger and bigger. 350 pounds
became 400 pounds turned into 450 pounds and then one day I hit 500
pounds.There seemed to be no
limit to how much weight I would gain and I seemed powerless to stop it.

Food was my drug and I
was addicted.I could not stop
eating.While others would be out
socializing and enjoying life, I would be sitting in my apartment by myself
binge eating pizza, ice cream, fast food and every junk food item imaginable.

As I started to get
older, the consequences of my food abuse began to show more and more.I developed high blood pressure.Then came an irregular heartbeat,
apparently a result of my 12-can-a-day diet soda habit.I developed sleep apnea.I was on multiple medications for
conditions that were not normal for an otherwise healthy adult in their
30’s.Then my mobility started
becoming restricted.I started
having difficulty getting out of bed in the morning.If I fell, it took 2 strong people to help me up.I couldn’t put my shoes on by myself
anymore. I couldn’t buy clothes from anywhere anymore. Everything in the big
and tall store was too small. All of my clothes had to be specially tailored to
fit me.The size 7X underwear that
I mail ordered was getting too small and that was the biggest size they had.

And then, it
happened.On June 19, 2010, I
developed shortness of breath walking a very short distance.I decided I was probably just tired or
dehydrated and went home and took a nap.That decision nearly cost me my life.

The next day, on my way
to work, the whole house of cards came crashing down.I got out of the car and with each step toward the office
door, I began to suffocate.I was
breathing in and out as fast as I could, but there was no oxygen to be
had.By the time I got near the
building, my legs gave out and my skin turned a pale white.

This was the end, I
thought. 37 years will be all I get.There in the parking lot, I started to think how disappointing it all
was.I was convinced I was dying
of a heart attack and wasn’t going to live.With the oxygen slowly leaving my body, I decided I had to
get help.I fished my phone out of
my pocket and somehow called my parents, who had just dropped me off because my
car was in the shop.

They came back and got
me and took me to the emergency room.While on the way there, barely conscious in the car, my mind started to
run wild.Since I knew I was going
to die, I started giving my Mom instructions on what to do with my belongings,
who to call and how to empty my bank account.Then, I had a thought.

When my parents brought
me home from the hospital as a newborn baby, I weighed 6 pounds and 10
ounces.Now they were taking
me back to the hospital, 37 years later, and I weighed over 500 pounds.Boy, I really screwed that up.What had I done?I had been given a good life and I
wasted it.

We
got to the ER and I must have been white as a sheet, or turning blue when I
stumbled in.I remember the
receptionist saying "can I help you?" And I remember whispering to
her, out of breath "I can't breathe."

I
have never seen so many people move so quickly in my life.They had me into a wheelchair, into a
room and on a table in about 30 seconds. I had oxygen, an EKG and an IV going
in another 30 seconds.

They
continued to run tests. I was in the ER for about 6 hours. A few hours into it,
I had to go to the bathroom.So I
took off the oxygen mask, went and came back completely out of breath. They
checked my blood oxygen level and it had dropped 30 points.

No
more going to the bathroom. "You're not going home anytime soon with
oxygen levels like that,” they told me.Finally, after several hours and more tests the doctor comes in. “We
don't think it's your heart, Mr. Ganey. Everything looks good there.”

That's
a relief.So if not a heart
attack, then what?Another doctor
will see you soon.

After
more time, here comes another doctor, a cardiologist.He ran me through the diagnosis, the tests, explained
everything in detail. He was impressive. He said they ruled out the heart and
instead suspected blood clots in my lungs.

He
didn’t have to say any more.I
knew what a pulmonary embolism was because I had read about it over the
years.The journalist David Bloom
died from a pulmonary embolism in 2003 while covering the war in Iraq for NBC.
The blood clots develop in your legs and travel to your lungs where they
accumulate.If enough of the clots
build up, they cut off your oxygen supply and you die instantly.

Except
I was lucky.I made it to the
hospital on time.I was going to
live. I have never felt a greater sense of relief in my life.

But
back to the doctor.He told me
that what they really needed to do was a CT scan to confirm the blood clots in
my lungs, only there was a problem.The machine had a weight limit of 350 pounds and they couldn’t do the
test.The doctor told me he would
admit me and begin treating me for a pulmonary embolism based solely on the
best guess he could come up with on what was happening.

Essentially,
what he was telling me with the utmost sympathy and sugar coating was this: I
was too fat for the machine, so they were doing the best they could. After
several hours in the emergency room, I would be admitted.

How
long? 2 or 3 days, on the low end.They're going to try to avoid operating.Operating? If the blood clots in my lungs that were
suffocating me didn't break up on their own, they would have to cut me open and
take them out.

For
now, the treatment was blood thinners, or more specifically
anti-coagulants.They shot me full
of something called Heparin and started a Heparin IV drip, which would last for
a week. I must have gone through 20 of those bags. In addition, they started a
fairly high dose of Coumadin.This
would take a few days to take effect.Coumadin?My grandfather was
on that drug for years at the end of his life. I knew it was a powerful drug
with awful side effects.

But
at least I was going to live.

During
my time in the hospital, I met several doctors, 2 nutritionists,
specialists...everything.After
some more tests, the following became very clear to me:

1.)
I came very, very close to dying.I was told 1 in 4 pulmonary embolism victims die within seconds.The first symptom is sudden death. The
blood clots form in the legs due to inactivity, travel to the lungs and collect
there. This is called Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT.) The clots clog the main
arteries in your lung and cause shortness of breath or worse.

2.)
The #1 risk factor for what happened to me was my weight.

3.)
I had a choice: lose weight or die. I was told this would keep happening to
me.One nurse point blank asked
me: “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in the health care
system?”

The
week I spent in the hospital was a miserable time.I couldn’t do anything without somebody helping me.The low point came when I needed help
going to the bathroom.With every
limitation, with every lack of mobility, I became more and more enraged at
myself.

How
did I let it get this bad?

What
am I doing?

Is
the food really worth it?

Because
of the tubes and wires, they wouldn’t let me take a shower. That’s right, I
went one whole week without a shower.As you can imagine, I wanted to kill myself.Also, the nurses would come every few hours to draw blood.
Because of my weight, they could never find a vein to draw the blood. I had
blood drawn from my hands, my wrist, my fingers...you name it.They couldn’t get the IV into my hand
and wound up sticking it into my arm, where it became infected.

More
limitations. More special treatment. More being told I couldn’t do something
because of my weight.

And then I snapped. Enough was enough. There would be no more of this.

I drew the line. This is where it would end. I didn’t want any more
sympathy.There would be no more
pity for Bryan Ganey.

I'm
only 37, I thought. I've got things to do. There is more to life than
eating.I will not go out like
this.I will find other things to
eat.I will seek out other food,
more nutritious food. This all ends now.

And
so, I was discharged from the hospital after a week.I weighed 577 pounds.I walked out of that hospital, head held high, absolutely determined to
not come back.There would be no
more sympathy for Bryan.There
would be no more blood clots.There would be no quick fix.All I cared about was getting started.

My
message for the medical community was simple:I don’t want your pills, I don’t want your surgery.All I want is for you to get out of my
way.

There are thousands of
diet books.All of them have
experienced varying degrees of popularity and they will all make you lose
weight.

So why am I different?

Here’s why my way will
work.It is designed to last.I am not going to sit here and insult
your intelligence and tell you that it is easy once you get started.It isn’t.All diets will give you that temporary euphoria of
winning.It all ends the same
way…6 or 9 months or a year of success…only to fall back down to the bottom of
a deep, dark hole of depression and despair when you can’t keep up the diet.
The old habits return and you’re back at square one.Why even bother?

Enter the Bryan Ganey
method.

First of all, I have
lived it. I have lost 350 pounds on my own, with no pills, no surgery, no diets
and no gimmicks.Granted, what
works for one person might not work for another.But I will tell you what doesn’t work: temporary fad diets
with a proven record of failure.

Second, I am going to
tell you the common sense you already know.I am going to tell you to see a doctor before you try to
lose weight.I am going to say it
over and over.I am going to tell
you to visit a registered dietitian before you begin. Where my expertise comes
in is the application of common-sense weight loss principles.

I will tell you how to avoid all of the common pitfalls and traps that people
fall into, because I have already fallen into them.I have already done the work for you. By purchasing this
book and reading it, you get to experience my success and my failures, without
having to live through it yourself.

So fasten your seatbelt (even if you have to get a seatbelt extender.)It’s going to be a fun ride.

You can do this.Any fool can lose weight.But to keep it off for the rest of your
life…that’s the challenge.

I, Bryan Ganey, hereby
do pledge to you, my dear reader, that I will never use the “O-Word” anywhere
in this book.

What is the O-word?You know the
word.It is the word that society
and the media use to stereotype the overweight.It has been used as a label with such frequency and with
such condescension and disdain that I now hate it.

It is an absolute irrefutable fact that
the last acceptable form of discrimination in our society is the mistreatment
of the overweight. It isn't right, but a large portion of society sees big
people as less than a human being, if they see them at all.I've experienced this first hand.You are due the same respect any other
person is so don't tolerate the jokes, the put-downs or the comments.

You are a person with as
much to offer is anyone else.I
will not devalue you by labeling you with the “O-Word.”

Every book about weight loss has to include this so you don't get sued. -BG

Disclaimer:

The information
contained in this book is for informational purposes only.Bryan Ganey is not a qualified health
professional, just a guy that lost a bunch of weight on his own.

Please seek medical
advice from a doctor before beginning any weight loss program. Please seek
nutritional advice from a registered dietitian prior to beginning any weight
loss program.Please consult a
medical doctor before beginning any exercise program.Please also consult a certified personal trainer before beginning
any exercise program.

The decision to have or
not have weight loss surgery is a decision that you should make after
consulting with your doctor and doing your own appropriate research.Do not make that decision based on
anything you read in this book.

Do not follow anything
you read in this book without discussing it with your doctor first.By reading this book, you are agreeing
that you will take your health seriously and only proceed with a lifestyle change
after receiving sound medical advice from a qualified health professional.